Ohio R’s: Your Children Belong to the State?

Central to the [very few] legitimate functions of government, is the protection of life, liberty and property from both foreign and domestic enemies (due process).

Earlier this week, we chimed in on the story of an Ohio mom whose children and parental rights were targeted and violated after she legally opted them out of testing (original Heartland piece here) .

We have since learned that every player at every level who is paid to protect our rights, has flipped her – and by extension us – the proverbial bird.

Brief Synopsis:
A Mercer County mom opted her children out of both physical (BMI, dental) and academic (Common Core Beta) assessments taking place in their public school. “I take my children to the dentist,” she said of the former, and well let’s face it, she’s not alone with her thoughts on the latter.

Though she didn’t need permission, this mother still contacted the Ohio Department of Education, who confirmed that while public schools are forced to administer the physical and academic assessments, children would be excused if the parents so desired.

All was well she thought, as she gladly shared the information with many other parents who wanted to know about the opt-out process.

Enter Superintendent Jesse Steiner, who declared that there will be no exercising of parental rights on his fief, and told parents that all children will be forced to take the assessments. (So which is it ODE?)

Then Mr. Steiner took things further; most will agree by a bit too much…

Obviously targeting them as catalysts to the opt-out requests of others, he stomped over to the school of the excused children, and had them pulled out in front of their classmates, where they were forced to submit to the BMI testing. They were the only ones mind you, because the rest of the school had completed that particular intrusion several days earlier.

Now imagine your elementary school-age son or daughter, maybe a little underweight, maybe a little over, telling you about this clear case of bullying as they get off the bus, then imagine them identifying the bullies as the very “adults,” who before every levy, claim they do it all “for your children.”

As an aside, what kind of person targets and bullies the young children of an adult with whom their issues lie?

It gets worse…
Of course the Celina School Board members will not return the mom’s calls (but are quick to answer the calls of others), nor will Superintendent Steiner, who, when all is said and done rallied three levels of participation (principal, teachers) for his witch hunt against “those meddling kids.”

Unfortunately, the silence of our ostensible “leader,” Senate President Keith Faber (R), on this violation of due process in his own district, is deafening.

Moreover, when asked for assistance, State Rep. Jim Buchy’s (R) aide replied: “Oh, we would never do that for a constituent,” then cited the pièce de résistance…”our districts have local control.”

Think about the implications of that in the context of this situation for a moment, while you ask yourself the question screaming from the commentary:

To whom do our children belong? Evidently the state…

Under Buchy’s pretense, while schools cannot exercise “local control” to opt-out of Common Core testing as the ODE confirmed, abusive Superintendents can use it as a permission slip to violate children and parental rights up one side and down the other?

These children were maliciously targeted and forced to retroactively submit to tests from which their mother had already, legally excused them, and the irony is that if the situation were reversed, the state would remove them from her home!

Good Lord, next we’ll be arresting veterans in wheelchairs for visiting their respective memorials, and granting custody of sick teenagers to the state…

This is one of the main reasons why Ohio remained cobalt blue in 2012, even after Ohio Republicans were handed majorities in every branch.

That which we call a statist by any other name, still stinks.

The rare Republican who will stand up against the progressives in their own party, will be beaten into submission or replaced. We need to turn that around and replace the progressive establishment.